Fresh Updates from RAC

Imagine a world where summers are warm but not scorching and winters are cold enough to double up on socks. Imagine a world where extreme weather patterns and rising sea levels are largely a thing of the past and where the skies are clear and the air, fresh. Imagine a world where climate change is neither a threat nor a reality.

On September 20^th, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced federal limitations on carbon emissions from new power plants after receiving comments on a proposed rule in the spring of 2012. These standards would prevent any new, large natural gas-fired plants from emitting more than 1,000 pounds of CO₂, small natural gas-fired plants from emitting more than 1,100 pounds of CO₂ and coal-fired units from emitting more than 1,100 pounds of CO₂ per megawatt-hour. These limits are a fairly significant reduction, considering conventional coal plants currently emit more than 1,800 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour. Read more…

This week, we will be celebrating the holiday of Thanks-giving, a time to come together with family and friends and express gratitude for the blessings in our lives. The observance of Thanks-giving commemorates the harvest festival and the holiday is centered on a meal that typically includes seasonal dishes.

In this day and age, you can get whatever food you want whenever you want it. If you’re craving a peach in the middle of a northeastern February, you can likely find one in the supermarket shipped from China or Georgia. In our ever-globalizing world, the produce section of a typical grocery store does not vary much from season to season. However, being able to eat a peach in February, while convenient, is not necessarily great for the environment or even for you as a consumer looking for the highest quality at the lowest cost. Read more…

Throughout November, NFTY has focused on raising awareness about the environment and encouraging action in response to the threat of climate change. In this week’s blog post, NFTY-GER Social Action Vice President, Lev Freedman explains the urgency of climate action and why it is an issue we should care about as both Americans and Reform Jews. Read more…

“We must stop calling events like [Typhoon Haiyan] as natural disasters. It is not natural when people continue to struggle to eradicate poverty and pursue development and gets battered by the onslaught of a monster storm now considered as the strongest storm ever to hit land. It is not natural when science already tells us that global warming will induce more intense storms. It is not natural when the human species has already profoundly changed the climate. Disasters are never natural.” – Philippines lead negotiator Yeb Sano addressing the opening session of the UN climate summit in Warsaw

Representatives from 195 countries are currently meeting in Warsaw, Poland for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC was first formed in 1992 when participating countries joined to discuss methods to cooperatively combat increases in global temperature and further, the looming threat of climate change.  By 1995, the negotiators adopted the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement committing its Parties to meet emission reduction targets. The United States is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol but has not yet ratified the treaty. The first commitment period for the Protocol was from 2008 to 2012 and the second period, which started January 1, 2013, will end in 2020.   Read more…

When faced with catastrophe and war, we are quick to recall Leviticus 19: “Do not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds.” This Jewish teaching led us to rally for stronger laws to prevent gun violence after the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary school and called us to demand justice after the Boston Marathon bombing. Yet, with no guns, bombs or weapons, there remains an ongoing battle faced by our global community that often goes unaddressed. Undoubtedly, climate change has led to some of the most devastating natural disasters in recent memory and has contributed to millions of deaths. It is our responsibility to respond. Read more…

Today, the EPA is holding a listening session to gather comments to inform the development of carbon pollution standards for existing power plants. Barbara Weinstein, Associate Director of the RAC, will be giving testimony in support of stringent carbon standards for existing power plants.

Watch live at 4:30 p.m.  | Read Barbara Weinstein’s testimony

Jewish tradition teaches that God implored, “Take care, lest you spoil and destroy my world, because if you do, there is no one after you to make it right again” (Kohelet Rabbah 7:13). At today’s session, Barbara will express the deep commitment of the Jewish community to protecting the earth and all of its inhabitants by creating strict and logical rules for the existing power plants in our country.

Barbara Weinstein previously testified in front of the EPA in May of 2012.

Dear Clean Water Act,

Happy 41^st Birthday! You may be over the hill, but at least you are not buried under it. Well, unless of course the hill is a mountain top that has been dumped into a nearby valley.

Today we celebrate 41 years of you, Clean Water Act – a huge, comprehensive piece of legislation that restored and continues to protect the ecological health of our nation’s wetlands, streams, rivers, lakes and estuaries. You were passed by Congress with an overwhelming bipartisan vote and since being enacted in 1972, you have removed more than one billion pounds per year of toxic pollutants from our nation’s waters, funded wastewater treatments plants and tightened regulations of toxic chemical discharges from industry reducing pollution in many lakes, rivers, wetlands and coastal areas.

We remember when you were just a bill at a time when Congress could rise above partisan politics and support the goals of a sweeping piece of legislation that aimed to restore and maintain the ecology of our nation’s waters for the overall protection of our environment. Read more…

On Friday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of scientists sponsored by the United Nations, released their latest summary report on our global climate crisis. This group of the brightest minds in climate science helps inform policymakers with trusted, cutting-edge intelligence about climate change. This most recent report is its first in six years. While the report includes a massive amount of information (about 2,500 pages worth), the biggest take-away comes in the form of just a few percentage points. In its 2007 report, the IPCC was 90% sure that humans are responsible for climate change; in this report they have announced that they are 95%-100% sure that humans are responsible for climate change.

The recent IPCC summary report inspires us to think about how our impact on the environment and our contribution to climate change affects those who are the most vulnerable among us. In fact, while children are the least responsible for the causes of climate change, they are disproportionately affected by the threat on health and wellbeing. When today’s children come of age around the year 2030, there will be more droughts, floods and storms as a result of climate change and these natural disasters will have greater impact on the world’s poorest nations. Read more…